ABSTRACT
The American downtown, formerly the psychological and social center of American life, relinquished its prominence, stature, and place to shopping centers more than a quarter century ago. Shopping moved indoors as the new town center heralded quarry tile, climate control, Muzak, and security. Though the longing for holiday department store windows, tea rooms, and the city-street hustle and bustle never fully subsided, the purchasing of apparel and household goods now overwhelming takes place in one of the 40,000+ enclosed malls and strip centers that dot this country from coast to coast.
